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Friday, December 4, 2015

Slaying Shadows (Translucent #4), Teaser 2

In just two weeks, Slaying Shadows (Translucent #4) is hitting shelves! Are you ready to find out what happens to Leona now that she's *spoiler alert for those of you who haven't read book three* met her double?

I can't wait to share the fourth book in the Translucent series with you, and the wait may in fact be killing me. ;) For now, I'll leave you with teaser #2!

Slaying Shadows Teaser #2

As I stared, mesmerized, at the naked body taking shape in
front of me—at my body—my flesh began
to crawl.

Dark matter had replicated me perfectly—the heart-shaped
birthmark on the side of my rib cage, the faint dusting of freckles on my
shoulders, the tiny vertical pinch of my belly button. Every mole, every scar,
every imperfection.

That it had copied me in such detail could only mean it had
intimate knowledge of my body, of my anatomy. I squirmed, suddenly skeeved out
in my own skin. Dark matter had explored me through and through.

She deposited the dark matter in our contact lens case
before fetching her shorts and tank top and pulling them on.

“Fine. I’ll change.”
I rummaged around in my dresser and yanked out a pair of black skinny jeans and
a silvery boatneck sweater, then dug out a pair of high heeled ankle boots from
my closet—just the kind of peacock-like outfit I hated.

“We’re going to need to figure out the logistics of this,”
she said, watching me.

“What logistics?” I searched the room for a place to change
in privacy.

“You and me. Being the same person and all. You trying to
freak out my parents.”

“Who’s going to go to school tomorrow?” she said. “Do you
want me to go to school, or do you want to go to school? Or should we switch
off? Or should we both go, and you take even periods, and I’ll take odd
periods?”

“I don’t know. Fuck school.”

“Alright, I’ll go to school.” She peeked in my direction.

“No, I’ll go to school.” I laced up my boots. “You’re not
going anywhere near a school.”

We both glared at each other for a moment, and then abruptly
broke the staring contest to survey the room for anything else we had to divvy
up.

“Dark matter?” she said tentatively.

I peered sharply at her. “What about it?”

“I mean, we should get rid of it, right? Neither one of us
should have it.”

“Yeah,” I croaked, holding out my hand. “Give it to me. I’ll
get rid of it.”

Reluctantly, she placed the contact lens case in my palm. My
fingers closed around it, and I stuffed it in the tiny pockets of my jeans. A
muscle twitched in her jaw before she finally tore her eyes off my hand.

A twinge of unease crept over me.

Why were we cooperating like this at all? My own motivations
made sense. I knew why I couldn’t kill her—I’d given my word to Major Connor,
and the military needed to study her—but why was she cooperating with me?
Presumably if she was a copy of me—and especially if she had a monster inside
her—she would want to kill me at the first opportunity.

Was she acting like this to disarm me?

I’d have to watch my back.

Something buzzed near my feet—the cell phone still in the
pockets of my shorts, a text message.

She glanced over, curious.

I dug it out, giving her a back-off look. “Cell phone’s mine, remember?”

“Yeah, but who is it? It depends on who it is, right?”

The text was from Emory. My insides froze. Why was he
texting? Was he even texting me, or was he texting her?

“Is it Emory?” she said.

“No, it’s not Emory.”

“Then who is it, huh?”

“Uh . . . it’s Megan.”

“Oh my God, you totally hesitated. Give it to me!” She
lunged for the phone in my hand.

I scrambled away from her, holding the phone out of reach.
“Yeah, so what? So what if he texts me? It’s still my phone.”

“It’s a stupid system anyway. You can’t claim a freaking
person—” I broke away from her long enough to read the text. When I did, my heart
did something funny.

Emory: I left my
letterman jacket at your house. Bring it to school tomorrow and leave it in Mr.
Delaney’s room. I don’t want to have to see you.

She read it over my shoulder, and her gaze slid to
the foot of her bed, where the green and white jacket was stuffed between the
mattress and the wall. Her lip quivered, and a fresh tear bobbed on her lower
eyelid.

“I’ve got school, so I’ll take it to him.” I grabbed the
jacket and hurried out before she could say anything else. The dreamy scent of
his cologne rose off the white leather sleeves, arousing a painful rush of
nostalgia and longing. On the verge of tears myself, I squeezed the jacket to
my chest, trying to hold on to something I couldn’t put my finger on, something
I’d never had, a whisper of another life.

***

Slaying Shadows releases on December 17. If you'd like to get an email in the book comes out, please join my mailing list here. And make sure to add it on Goodreads, which you can do here!

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